The most common types of injuries suffered by healthcare workers and care givers are back strains and sprains due to lifting patients improperly. Lifting and transferring disabled and elderly patients is a leading cause of industry in the healthcare industry where nurses have the highest risk and incident of injury. This may be due to the weight of the individual, the position of the individual, or the strength of the healthcare worker or caregiver. Despite the cause of the injury, several methods, devices, and apparatuses have been promoted to reduce the risk of injury when lifting or moving a disabled, injured, or elderly patient, the risk of injury and incident of injury continues to increase.
Various attempts have been made, although unsuccessfully, to solve this problem. One illustrative attempt can be seen with respect to U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,057, which generally discloses a patient support and lifting device. While this disclosure does involve a device that aids in lifting and moving an individual from one location to another, it fails to provide for a means to lift and move an individual with out added strain or stress to the user's back.
Another example can be seen with respect to U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,947, which generally discloses a machine for assisting a partially ambulatory user to rise and move about. While this disclosure does involve a device that aids in the movement of an individual, the device is self-operated and does not provide for a means for a second party to lift and move an immobile or partially ambulatory individual.
As can be seen, various attempts have been made to solve the problems which may be found in the related art but have been unsuccessful. A need exists for a new patient lifting device to avoid the challenges and problems with the prior art.